A British private eye hired by Dubai’s ruler to threaten his runaway wife’s security chief can today be unmasked as a former Scotland Yard anti-terror officer.
Stuart Page, whose identity was previously kept secret, helped wage an intimidation campaign for billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This was a friend to the Queen, the High Court discovered.
He threatened to damage the reputation of a senior bodyguard hired by the sheikh’s youngest wife Princess Haya after she fled to London in fear of her life with their children in 2019 unless he stopped working for her, a judge ruled.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Vice President, Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai) arrives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with his wife Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, during the World Government Summit 2017.
The High Court has locked the princess and her autocratic ex husband in the most expensive child custody case in UK legal history.
It has been raging since more than two years. The High Court has made damning conclusions, including that the sheikh orchestrated the armed kidnapping of Princess Shamsa, a runaway princess from Cambridgeshire.
The High Court found that Sheikh Mohammed had set up an illegal phone hacking operation on UK soil to tap Princess Haya’s phones. This was in addition to her British solicitors, bodyguards, and other officers.
It can now be seen that he also hired Mr Page, 70 years old, a former Metropolitan Police officer who is now a private security consultant. He has a long track record of being involved with hacking cases.
Stuart Page (pictured), whose identity used to be kept secret, waged an intimidation campaign for billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This was a friend and foe of Queen Elizabeth II, the High Court found.
In June 2019, soon after Oxford-educated Princess Haya – the sheikh’s sixth wife – escaped Dubai to the UK in a private jet with the couple’s young children, Mr Page went to meet her security chief, himself a former senior policeman, in London and delivered a ‘clear threat’ to discredit him personally and professionally, a judge found.
In a ruling last year, the High Court said that the 45-year-old princess’s unnamed security chief, who had ‘a distinguished career as a police officer at a high level’ and was ‘used to very challenging conversations’ had been left ‘seriously troubled and concerned’ by the encounter.
The court’s finding was made without evidence from Mr Page who denies any wrongdoing.
Previously, the High Court has referred to him as ‘SP’ – but now a court order has unmasked him as Stuart Page.
The meeting occurred two days after Sheikh Mohammed, racehorse-owner, was pictured at Royal Ascot with Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge. Two days earlier, he published poems which his spouse interpreted as death threats.
Mr. Page was an Anti-Terror Officer with the Metropolitan Police in 1971 and an Army Reservist before he reinvented himself to be a troubleshooter for Middle Eastern governments.
The Bentley-driving private investigator – who charges up to £220,000 ($300,000) a month and has a £5million London townhouse – and his security firms Page Group Ltd and Page Protective Services have worked for the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates.
And he provided security through Page Protective Services, for British embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel.
He was accused of hacking emails for the benefit of another UAE ruler in a separate case before the High Court.
He threatened to damage the reputation of a senior bodyguard hired by the sheikh’s youngest wife Princess Haya after she fled to London in fear of her life with their children in 2019 unless he stopped working for her, a judge ruled
He ‘strongly denies’ doing so, his lawyer said. The judge did not find that Mr Page had obtained hacked documents in that case but said Mr Page ‘operates in a world of covert surveillance… and would be a reasonable inference to draw from these incidents that Mr Page has access to agents with the capacity to hack emails’.
On his 19th Birthday, Mr. Page began his career with the Sussex constabulary as a policeman.
He was able to take a career break and work for Aramco in Saudi Arabia, the country’s national oil company. After that, he returned to Britain to work as private security.
Oxford-educated Princess Haya (pictured) – the sheikh’s sixth wife – escaped Dubai to the UK in a private jet with the couple’s young children
In one of his more colourful roles, he spent two years as a close protection officer for the pop star Boy George who, much to his annoyance, used to call him his ‘pet pig’, according to an interview in The Times.
The Queen was under pressure to end her friendship and friendship with Sheikh Mohammed, 72. Sheikh Mohammed is the ruler of Dubai and is also prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. He also owns several properties in Britain and racehorses.
Mr Page’s lawyer John Fordham said yesterday his client ‘does not accept the evidence’ of Princess Haya’s security chief was ‘correct’, adding: ‘Mr Page did not threaten anyone.’
He claimed that his client had not been given an opportunity to refute the allegations.
Mr Ford also stated Mr Page strongly denied being involved in hacking emails.
The ruler of Dubai is an ally of the UK and can be seen shaking hands in 2011 with Queen Elizabeth at Epsom Racecourse on Derby Day.